Monday, October 26, 2009

I hear that there's a National Unity Forum over at Sunway University College today. I wonder how it went? Maybe something like....

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I want to tell you about a great success story in national unity which our country may follow. Let's call this country the country of TUAN.

Now, TUAN had historically lost an important war. As the losers of the war, there were a great many penalties imposed on the country of TUAN The morale of the people of the country was in shambles, and there was a lot of infighting. Worse of all, there was a great disparity in the economic success of the ethnic groups in the country, with a great deal of the money of the country laid in the hands of a particular minority race. The race which held the majority status on the other hand suffered greatly due to the harsh penalties imposed on them from the war.

Eventually, a charismatic leader took a try at politics in his country. He cried for national pride, for a unity of the nation to rise up against all odds. He emphasised that this unity could only happen through the unity of culture, values, race and religion, and that the success of TUAN could only come through this national pride in their identity as a nation. A unity of culture and values.

This method of unifying the country has been around for a long time - it was called nationalism.

The majority of the people of TUAN heeded this charismatic leader's cry for unity, and bore their identity as a race and as a nation with pride. They worked hard to develop themselves and their country, to make TUAN the strongest country they could be. It worked wonderfully.

Unfortunately, there was a barrier to this unity. The minority race which held a great deal of wealth in the country had a completely different culture from the rest of the people - worse, this minority race had a different religion and language from the rest of the nation. Making these people a part of the country's identity as a nation was a huge challenge.

The charismatic leader took hold of the situation in the most efficient manner he could think of - he segregated these people from the rest of the country and put them in towns dedicated to this minority race. No longer would these minority race stand in the way of the progress of this great nation, TUAN. No longer would they stand in the way of the unity of the identity of the nation.

No longer would they live.

In the mean time, the country of TUAN prospered greatly under this leader's rule. The harsh penalties which were imposed upon TUAN were actually paid up very quickly, shocking the other countries which had won out in the last war. And the country of TUAN became such a strong and powerful nation, and their pride in their identity as a nation so solid, that they decided that their people and nation should be the TUAN over all nations.

The name of that nation was Germany. That charismatic leader that united his nation to become a mighty power was Hitler.

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1Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."

8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

-Genesis 11:1-9

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Nationalism is a tool of men, made by men in order to gain power over the people. Consider embracing cosmopolitanism instead, the LORD sure did.

Monday, October 05, 2009

Aaaand I've officially got a tummy now. There's a first for everything, I guess. Some of that weight must have gone to the stomach after all. *sighs*

Gosh, I need to diet. I don't take much oil or fats, so that means I must have been taking too much carbo. So less carbo in diet. Bleh, so much for easy ham sandwiches.

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Me: Auugh! Cramps cramps cramps!

Later,Mum: You've been glugging down a lot of water since you started gymming, right dear?Me: Yes mum.Me: You've been sweating out all the salt and drinking so much water that you don't have enough salt in your system.

Salt it's salt now? Gosh, that's a new one. What can I do for salt? isotonic drinks, regular chap fan and salty food, but what about at home? Preferably something with protein in it... AHA!

Roasted salted peanuts!

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...erm, I'm not going to explain why I have a need for fibre. Use your own imagination.

Anyway, I don't want bananas (too much starch/carbo) or papaya (hate the stuff) and my usual wholemeal bread sandwiches are out since i'm cutting carbo, so that leaves my options to taking large amounts of vegetables or...Prunes!

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Me: Hrmmm. I need protein, but all this ham and turkey ham is expensive... and it's processed food. Convenient, but maybe not all that good for me in more than one way. So how? ....hrm, chicken fillets are going for that much only? Cheaper than chicken breast?

So I had to buy I started cooking again.

First few times: Stir fried chicken fillets in olive oil... and dunking in some canned corn. Mostly tasteless since I didn't buy ingredients (like soy sauce, salt, garlic, vegetable and so on)

Next time however...

Me: Guh, so bored of research... *dunks corn into stir fry wok while frying chicken* This was so tasteless last time, time to use the stuff i bought! *throws in soya sauce* Ooops, too much! Oh, nevermind. *throws in oyster sauce as well*

...*fry fry fry*...

Me: Still feel bored. Isn't there any way to make it more interesting?...